O.C. climbers have near-death fall from Suicide Rock - Calif

[Felicia]

While we here hiking on Saturday, we saw the helicopter and wondered what was going on. See my posting in the hiking section. I did not comment on it, because we had no idea. If you look in the very center of my landscape photos, you can see the helicopter. At the time, the helicopter was the focus of my photos....little did I know that the weather was going to be the center of my final tale of the trip.

Thursday, September 4, 2008
O.C. climbers have near-death fall from Suicide Rock
Pair suffer serious injuries after tumbling from Idyllwild peak.
By JEFF OVERLEY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Comments | Recommend

A pair of Orange County climbers had a near-death fall while scaling an Idyllwild crag known as Suicide Rock, authorities said today.

The duo were headed up the 400-foot wall of granite in the San Jacinto mountain range when the fall occurred Saturday afternoon, said Jim Reyes, an Idyllwild Fire Department captain who was involved in the rescue.

Irvine resident Trevor Mathews, 21, fell onto fellow climber and Costa Mesa resident Claire McKay, 22, according to published reports.

Mathews was the lead climber and since the two were connected by climbing gear, "he kind of pulled her along with him," Reyes said.

Mathews suffered major head injuries and "was out of it" when rescuers, who were beset by hail and flash flooding, carried him away from the base of the rock Saturday afternoon, Reyes said.

McKay fell about 25 feet and was farther up the rock, and was awake and aware when rescuers arrived, Reyes said. Both are expected to survive.

Emergency calls to the steeply graded rock are not uncommon, Reyes said. An Idyllwild man suffered moderate injuries in June after falling at the rock and had to be extricated by helicopter, as did a 14-year-old climber who fell there in 2006, according to published reports.

"That's why they call it Suicide Rock," Reyes said. "It's a heck of a (climb)."

[Felicia]

Here is a shot of Suicide on a nice day:

http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s358/iamfeliciaus/Taquitz%20Peak%20August%2030%202008/Taquitz%20Peak%20July%202008/IMG_0831.jpg

Here is a shot taken on Saturday with the helicopter in the very center of the photograph just below the stone face.

http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s358/iamfeliciaus/Taquitz%20Peak%20August%2030%202008/IMG_0115.jpg

The weather was intense!

[JP]

One heck of a place for a suicide :eek2:

[Randi]

While we here hiking on Saturday, we saw the helicopter and wondered what was going on. See my posting in the hiking section. I did not comment on it, because we had no idea. If you look in the very center of my landscape photos, you can see the helicopter. At the time, the helicopter was the focus of my photos....little did I know that the weather was going to be the center of my final tale of the trip.

Thursday, September 4, 2008
O.C. climbers have near-death fall from Suicide Rock
Pair suffer serious injuries after tumbling from Idyllwild peak.
By JEFF OVERLEY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Comments | Recommend

more on this story from Supertopo forum:

Apparently the story in the Desert Sun was wrong. Here's the real
story as reported by a friend of the two climbers.

"I finally got to talk to Claire tonight to get the real story so...
here it goes.

"The two were on Captain Hook. They had finished the first pitch and
had started up the second. Claire was belaying from the ledge atop
the first pitch. The anchor consisted of one nut (size unknown) and a
#3 BD cam. The anchor was skimpy because Trevor wanted to conserve
gear for the next pitch. He began the second pitch of which the first
20 or so feet was unprotectable (at least with the gear they had).
After this section, Trevor placed a #1 BD cam and proceeded to climb
above it. He complained of some difficulties with the climbing and
suddenly pitched off backwards. He came tight to the #1 which he was
roughly 5 feet above. The cam pulled and he continued falling
backward, now head-first, toward the belay. Claire locked off the
rope through her ATC and braced inward against the wall to arrest the
fall. Trevor hit Claire causing her to slam into the wall leading to
fractures of her cheek bone, arm and wrist. Claire also was knocked
unconscious at this point. Trevor continued his fall and as the rope
came tight through the anchor, the two pieces failed. Luckily for
Claire, she had collapsed onto the ledge when she passed out. Her
unconscious state also led to a relaxed grip on the rope. Thus, as
Trevor continued falling, Claire remained on the ledge despite the
anchor blowing. Had she not been knocked out, she would have
certainly kept a tight hold on the brake and undoubtedly would have
been pulled off the ledge into a fall with Trevor. Sadly, under these
circumstances, there was virtually nothing that would have kept
Trevor from decking but Claire somehow escaped the same fate.

"Trevor was wearing a helmet and this surely saved his life. As he
fell head-first for nearly 120 feet, he hit his head several times
and broke his helmet. He also, as mentioned before, broke his neck.
He'll be in a brace to immobilize his neck for 3 months. The doctors
are surprised, however, at how quickly he is recovering and said he
may be released as early as Tuesday, a short hospital stay for such
an injury in my opinion. The blood clot on his brain is being
monitored and has not grown since yesterday. This will obviously need
to be continuously monitored.

He is also alert and talking so it appears that the likelihood of
permanent brain damage is minimal.

Claire is at home and in good spirits. She was her normal cheery self
on the phone though notably shaken when she was describing the
scenario to me. She'll need some re-constructive surgery on her face
from the fractured cheek. She also, if the initial injuries weren't
enough, suffered numerous contusions from some very sizable hail
which began to fall during a nasty storm that rolled in shortly after
the incident. She was stranded on the ledge for approximately two
hours before she was rescued and unable to find any shelter from the
elements.

We all hope for a speedy recovery for both of them.

A big thanks goes out to all of the climbers/SAR members who assisted
in their rescue!! The first two to find Trevor at the base happened
to be EMTs and jumped right into action stabilizing Trevor and
orchestrating his extraction. There were a number of others who
helped to carry them off the mountain on the litters which is no easy
task. Also, a special thanks goes out to Ryan Moore (sp?) who hiked
back in the the route to retrieve their gear and Claire's car which
he then drove down the mountain to Riverside County Hospital where
the two had been airlifted. "

see http://www.supertop o.com/climbing/ thread.html? topic_id= 665169


~Randi

[JP]

A clot is a serious thing, especially if it moves.

[sparker1]

An amazing story, especially that they both survived and are recovering.

[Felicia]

more on this story from Supertopo forum:

Apparently the story in the Desert Sun was wrong. Here's the real
story as reported by a friend of the two climbers.


~Randi

Wow! It is interesting to realize that all that was going on as we were hiking. We figured that SAR was running exercises. I guess I sometimes forget to think that something bad has happened. I'm glad that they are going to be OK.

Thanks for the information.